Washington, DC, February 16, 2006--New construction of U.S. homes soared 14.5% in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.276 million, aided by the warmest weather of any January on record.
It's the highest rate for seasonally adjusted starts since March 1973. The percentage gain was the largest in nearly 12 years, the Commerce Department said Thursday.
Housing starts were up 4% over the rate recorded in January 2005, which was also a relatively warm and dry month.
Starts of new single-family homes rose 12.8% to a record seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.819 million in January.
The gain in housing starts far exceeded the 2.02 million pace expected by economists.
In addition to January's strength, December housing starts were revised higher to 1.988 million from 1.933 million previously.
The increase was largely attributable to the unseasonably warm and dry weather in much of the country in January, which allowed home builders to get an early start on pouring foundations.
But the weather wasn't the entire story. Building permits, which are less affected by monthly weather disruptions, rose 6.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 2.217 million.
Building permits are up 3.8% since last January.
New construction soared in every region of the nation. They were up 29.2% in the Northeast, 23.7% in the Midwest, 16.9% in the West and 8.7% in the South.
